Warrior Odyssey

[Chief_Suicide]

I did a search on both Warrior Odyssey and Antonio Graceffo and did not find his new book.

The book is called Warrior Odyssey. I just got it last week to add to my list of martial arts journey books, like American Shaolin, Me, Chi, and Bruce Lee, etc.

It covers his years all over Asia. I just started reading the book, and he is still on his first stop in Taiwan. Wondering if anyone else has read it. It only came out last summer. I know the "Brooklyn Monk" writes articles for the EZINE every so often.

Just curious... I'm enjoying it so far.

[GeneChing]

He debuted his Monk From Brooklyn with us. He used to write a lot for us - see his copious e-zine contributions in our archive. There's also a thread on him in our MMA forum.

[Jimbo]

I have the book, though I haven't read it straight through, but skipped around to various chapters so far. It's an interesting read.

One thing that kind of surprised me is, he states that initially he could not find a kung fu teacher in Taiwan. I'll have to check the book again, because I don't recall which city/town he stayed in; but in Taipei I'm aware of at least a couple teachers who are well-known and still teaching, AFAIK, and they both have lots of foreign students. Both are known for quality instruction and fighting applications. At least one of them, Lo Man-Kam (Wing Chun) is not hard to find.

It was interesting how Mr. Graceffo said that before he first went to Taiwan, he thought that everybody there would know kung fu (or something to that effect). When I lived there, I learned very quickly that few people really know or care about kung fu at all. Of all the martial arts, TKD is most popular there, and a number of Taiwanese trained in JMA (kendo, judo, karate, etc.). And most young men who do train quit MA practice once they complete university/military service and enter the work force.